Besides, as this purging men by oath has no foundation in the law of the land, it is undoubtedly contrary to the law of nature and nations, where this is a received maxim, Nemo tenetur seipsum accusare: No man is bound to ac cuse himself. The Queen therefore had no power to authorize her commissioners to set up an inquisition, and administer an oath to the suspected person, to answer all questions the court should put to him, and to convict him upon those answers; or if they could confront his decla rations, to punish him as perjured. If any persons disobeyed the orders and decrees of the court, by not appearing at their summons, &c. the commis. sioners, were empowered to punish them by FINE OR IM PRISONMENT, AT THEIR DISCRETIONS. This also was contrary to law, for the body of a subject is to be dealt with secundum legem terræ, according to the law of the land, as Magna Charta and the law saith. The clerk felon in the bishop's prison is the King's prisoner, and not the bishop's, and therefore by the 1st of Henry the VIIth, cap. 4, "The bishop of the diocese is empowered to imprison such priests, or other religious persons within his jurisdiction, as shall by examination, and other lawful 'proofs requisite by the law of the church, be convicted of 'fornication, incest, or any fleshly incontinency, and there to detain them for such time as shall be thought by their 'discretions convenient, according to the quality of the of fence; and that none of the said archbishops or bishops shall be chargeable with an action of false imprisonment 'for so doing."* Which plainly implies, that a bishop cannot by law commit a man to prison, except in the cases above-mentioned; and that in all others, the law remains in force as before. If then the Queen, by her ecclesiastical commission, could not dispense with the laws of the land, it is evident that the long and arbitrary imprison ments of the puritan clergy, before they had been legally convicted, and all their confinements afterwards, beyond the time limited by the statutes, were so many acts of oppression; and every acting bishop or commissioner, was liable to be sued in an action of false imprisonment. Life of Aylmer, p. 145, The law says, no man shall be fined ultra tenementum, beyond his estate or ability. But the fines raised by this court, in the two next reigns, were so exorbitant, that no man was secure in his property or estate; though, according to lord Clarendon, their power of levying any fines at all was very doubtful. Some for speaking an unmannerly word, or writing what the court was pleased to construe a libel, were fined from five hundred to ten thousand pounds, and perpetual imprisonment; some had their cars cut off and their noses slit, after they had been exposed several days in the pillory; and many families were driven into banishment; till in process of time the court became such a general nuisance, that it was dissolved by parliament, with a clause that no such court should be erected for the future. Further, the commission gives no authority to the court to frame articles, and oblige the clergy to subscribe them. It empowers them to reform all errors, heresies and schisms, which may lawfully be reformed, according to the power and authority, limited and appointed by the laws and statutes of the realm. But there never was a clause in any of the commissions, empowering them to enforce subscription to articles of their own devising. Therefore their doing this, without a special ratification under the great seal, was no doubt an usurpation of the supremacy, and brought them within the compass of a præmunire, according to the statutes of the 25th of Henry VIII. cap. 20, and 1 Eliz. cap. 3. Lastly, Though all spiritual courts (and consequently the high commission) are and ought to be subject to prohibitions from the supreme courts of law, yet the commissioners would seldom or never admit them, and at length terrified the judges from granting them: So that, upon the whole, their proceedings were for the most part contrary to the act of submission of the clergy, contrary to the statute laws of the realm, and no better than a spiritual inquisition.† * MS. p. 573. † In this view it was considered by the Lord Treasurer Burleigh."According to my simple judgment," says he, in a letter to the archbishop, "this kind of proceeding is too much savoring the Romish inquisition, and is rather a device to seek for offenders, than reform any." Fuller's Church History, b. ix. p. 155. Mr. Hume stigmatizes this court not only as a real INQUISITION; but attended with all the INIQUITIES, as well as cruelties, inseparable from that horrid tribunal. ED. If a clergyman omitted any of the ceremonies of the church in his public ministrations, or if a parishioner bore an ill-will to his minister, he might inform the commissioners by letter, that he was a suspected person; upon which a pursuivant or messenger was sent to his house with a citation.* The pursuivant who brought them up, had thirty-three shillings and four-pence for forty-one miles, being about nine or ten-pence a mile. Upon their appearing before the commissioners, they were committed prisoners to the Clink prison seven weeks, before they were called to their trial. When the prisoners were brought to the bar, the court immediately tendered them the oath, to answer all questions to the best of their knowledge; by which they were obliged not only to accuse themselves, but frequently to bring their relations and friends into trouble. The party to be examined, was not to be acquainted with the interrogatories beforehand, nor to have a copy of his answers, which were lodged with the secretary of the court, against the day of his trial. If the commissioners could not convict him upon his own confession, then they examined their witnesses, but never cleared him upon his own oath. If they could not reach the prisoner by their ordinary jurisdiction as bishops, they would then sit as ecclesiastical commissioners. If they * The citation was to the following effect: "WE will and command you, and every of you, in her majesty's name, by virtue of her high commission for causes ecclesiastical, to us and others directed, that you, and every of you, do make your personal appearance before us, or others her majesty's commissioners in that behalf appointed, in the consistory within the cathedral church of St. Paul's, London, [or at Lambeth] the 7th day next after the sight hereof, if we or other our colleagues shall then happen to sit in commission, or else at our next sitting there, then next immediately follow'ing: And that after your appearance there made, you, and every of 'you, shall attend, and not depart without our special licence; willing and commanding you, to whom these our letters shall first be delivered, 'to shew the same, and give intimation and knowledge thereof to the oth'ers nominated upon the indorsement hereof, as you, and every of you, 'will answer to the contrary at your perils. Given at London, the 16th ' of May, 1584. John Cant. could not convict him upon any statute, then they had recourse to their old obsolete law ecclesiastical; so that the prisoner seldom knew by what law he was to be tried, or how to prepare for his defence. Sometimes men were obliged to a long attendance, and at other times condemned in haste without any trial. The Rev. Mr. Brayne, a Cambridge minister, being sent for to Lambeth, made his appearance before the archbishop and two other commissioners, on Saturday in the afternoon, and being commanded to answer the interrogatories of the court upon oath, he refused, unless he might first see them, and write down his answers with his own hand; which his grace refusing, immediately gave him his canonical admonitions, once, twice, and thrice; and caused him to be registered for contempt, and suspended.* Let the reader carefully peruse the twenty-four articles themselves, which the archbishop framed for the service of the court; and then judge, whether it were possible for an honest man to answer them upon oath, without exposing himself to the mercy of his adversaries.† *Life of Whitgift, p. 163. ↑ The articles were these that follow: 1. IMPRIMIS, "Objicimus, ponimus, and articulamur, i. e. We object, put, and article to you, That you are a deacon or minister, and priest admitted; declare by whom, and what time you were ordered; and likewise, that your ordering was according to the book in that behalf by the law of this land provided. Et objicimus conjunctim de omni & divisim de quolibet, i. e. And we object to you the whole of this article taken together, and every branch of it separately.' 2. Item, "Objicimus, ponimus, & articulamur, That you deem and judge such your ordering, admission and calling into your ministry to be lawful and not repugnant to the word of God. Et objicimus ut supra, i. e. And we object as before." 3. Item, "Objicimus, ponimus, &c. That you have sworn, as well at the time of your ordering as institution, duty and allegiance to the Queen's majesty, and canonical obedience to your ordinary and his successors, and to the metropolitan and his successors, or to some of them. Et objicimus ut supra. 4. Item, "Objicimus, &c. That by a statute or act of parliament made in the 1st year of the Queen's majesty that now is, one virtuous and godly book, entitled, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments, &c. was authorized and established to stand and be from and after the feast of the nativity of St. John Baptist then next ensuing, in full force and effect, according to the said statute, and so yet remaineth. Et obj. ut supra. When the Lord Treasurer Burleigh had read them over, and seen the execution they had done upon the clergy, he wrote his grace the following letter: 5. Item, "Obj. That by the said statute all ministers within her majesty's dominions, ever since the said feast, have been and are bound to say and use, a certain form of morning and evening prayer called in the act Mattins, even-song, celebration of the Lord's supper, and administration of each of the sacraments; and all other common and open prayer in such order and form is as mentioned in the same book, and none other, nor otherwise. Et obj. ut supra. 6. Item, Obj. "That in the said statute her majesty, the lords temporal, and all the commons, in that parliament assembled, do in God's name earnestly charge and require all the archbishops, bishops, and other ordinaries, that they shall endeavor themselves to the uttermost of their knowledge, that the due and true execution of the said act might be had throughout their diocese and charge, as they would answer it before Almighty God. Et obj. ut supra. 7. Item, "Obj. ponimus, &c. That you deem and judge the said whole book to be a godly and a virtuous book, agreeable, or at least not repugnant to the word of God; 'if not, we require and command you to declare, wherein, and in what points.' Et objicimus ut supra. 8. Item, "Obj. That for the space of these three years, two years, one year, half a year; three, two, or one month last past, you have at the time of communion, and at all or some other times in your ministration, used and worn only your ordinary apparel, and not the surplice, as is required: declare how long, how often, and for what cause, consideration, or intent, you have so done, or refused so to do.' Et obj. ut supra. 6 9. Item, "Obj. That within the time aforesaid you have baptized divers, or at least one infant, and have not used the sign of the cross in the forehead, with the words prescribed to be used in the said book of common prayer; declare how many you have so baptized, and for 'what cause, consideration, and intent." Et obj. ut supra. 10. Item, "Obj. &c. That within the time aforesaid you have been sent unto, and required divers times, or at least once, to baptize children; or some one child being weak, and have refused, neglected, or at least so long deferred the same, till the child or children died without the sacrament or baptism: " declare whose child, when, and for what consideration." Et. obj. ut supra. 66 11. Item, "Ohj. &c. That within the time aforesaid you have celebrated matrimony otherwise than the book prescribes, and without a ring and have refused at such times to call for the ring, and to use such words in that behalf as the book appoints, and particularly those words, that by matrimony is signified the spiritual marriage and unity between • Christ and his church."-" Declare the circumstances of time, person, and place, and for what cause, intent, and consideration.' Et obj. ut supra. 12. Item, "Obj. &c. That you have within the time aforesaid neglected, or refused to use the form of thanksgiving for women, or sontie one woman after child-birth, according to the said book. 'Declare the www |